Donald Trump has signed an executive order directing US federal agencies to call Lake Ontario 'Lake America', provoking an immediate rejection from Canada as relations between the neighbouring countries deteriorate.
The order requires the US Department of the Interior to replace Lake Ontario with the new name across federal maps, databases, contracts and official communications.
However, the decision applies only to US federal usage. It does not require Canada, state governments, private organisations or international bodies to adopt the name.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney responded by declaring that Canadians would continue calling it Lake Ontario 'then, now and always'.
Trump signed the order at the White House on Thursday, 27 August, with a large map of the Great Lakes displayed behind him. 'Lake America' had been printed across Lake Ontario in prominent red letters.
The official executive order gives the Interior Department 30 days to work with the US Board on Geographic Names and update the Geographic Names Information System.
Federal departments and agencies will subsequently be expected to use Lake America on maps, contracts, documents and public communications.
Trump said the change was 'effective immediately', although the order provides a 30-day period for officials to complete the formal process.
The order describes the lake as an important American economic resource. It says the broader Great Lakes-St Lawrence Seaway system supports hundreds of thousands of US jobs and generates billions of dollars through shipping, manufacturing, agriculture and related industries.
It also claims that the United States holds most of Lake Ontario's volume because its deepest waters lie within US territory. Approximately 52 per cent of the lake's surface area is in Canada with the remainder in New York.
Carney rejected the decision by stressing that the name Lake Ontario has been used for more than 400 years. It predates both Canadian Confederation and the US Declaration of Independence.
He said Canada understood the importance of recognising historical and geographical reality, making clear that Canadian government maps and documents would retain the existing name.
The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big”.The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America.…
Ontario Premier Doug Ford also rejected the change, saying the body of water would remain Lake Ontario to Canadians and the rest of the world.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul joined the opposition from the American side of the border, stating that her state would not use Trump's new name.
